[Expeditions] The Temple of Power aka The Spider Milking Incident
Sarah Gear
Krithra entered the tavern, visibly weary but in high spirits. It was just starting to get busy as the dragonborn swaggered right up to the bar, throwing a hefty bag onto a nearby table. The dense thud attracted the attention of a prying local, who wasted no time slinking over. “Alright Krith? Ain’t seen ya ‘round in a few days. Whatcha got in that there bag?”. Krithra paused for a moment. “Ha, don't make me laugh! You haven’t got the minerals for the contents of my bag, let alone the stories I could tell”. A handful of folk had now gathered around, intrigued as ever by the tales of adventurers returning from beyond The Valley.
After downing a flagon of ale and signaling the barkeep for another, Krithra settled down and began speaking in a low, serious tone that drew the tavern patrons in close. “I arrived at this very tavern three days ago, later than planned and the party had already gathered with ale and supposedly “healing” triangular snacks. I only knew Birel, the half-elf sorcerer, from our last adventure. Although I was familiar with the deeds of the two elves, Tagariel the wizard and Xyrxina the ranger, this would be the first time we have met. Also in the party was Zardan the tiefling paladin (to provide some much needed adult supervision).
“We gathered the kit we needed, including a green energy sword and a fire elemental crossbow, as well as a couple of healers kits and some anti-toxins. We all knew this was going to be a dangerous excursion, although we weren’t going far. Our plan was to head over to the Quiet Wood and the so-called Temple of Power where there was some talk of Giant Spiders from the last party to visit the area in the summer…
“The journey down to the Quiet Wood was short and uneventful. Once there, it became apparent that the path had been cleared since the last trip. Tagariel made use of Bartemius the owl apparition to scout ahead to the previously ruined huts. Bartemius proved itself to be very useful throughout – with skills such as vision, observation, sight, looking and seeing. We made our way cautiously towards the huts and met another half elf by the name of Somoren who was busy repairing the least damaged hut. She was alone, but said she’d travelled the plains from the South West with her brother (I wonder what happened to him…?). Somoren made it clear that they hadn’t come from Klippica (where the elves are “backward and superstitious”, apparently), but from further afield. She called it the Elf Lands, which must be a few weeks travel. They don’t live in towns or villages, but scattered encampments – and the Quiet Wood used to be one such Elf Lands Encampment. She seemed concerned about the spiders since the old encampment was over run around ten years ago. Tagariel and Zardan impressed her greatly with all the spider facts they knew and we left her feeling reassured that we had the situation under control.
“We spent the first night in the octagonal stone Groundskeepers hut but were disturbed just before dawn by a terrible, visceral screaming. There was no way of knowing where it had come from, so Xyrxina and I headed out to investigate. Xyrxina quickly determined that the source of the noise was a wolf and we tracked its remains in the forest undergrowth. The wolf had been ripped open and had huge jagged bite marks on its torso. Bartemius managed to glimpse a large figure skittering away. By this time Zardan had managed to get his armour on and the rest of the party joined us in the bright morning of the woods. We explored the direction that the skittering creature had disappeared in and found a hole about 2ft wide (a tight squeeze for any of us – where are those smaller party members when you need them, eh…?). We managed to peer right the way down and could see a mud lid had been fashioned. The tunnel went towards the Temple of Power, so we continued with the original plan to head over there. The Tower of Observation was nearby, but our minds were focused by a beast powerful enough to kill and partially eat a wolf.
“Once we arrived at the Temple of Power, Birel noticed some boot prints in a dried up muddy puddle and Tagariel found that a note he had left saying “do not use” had the following messaged added in common; “Good idea. ___is this? Come to Pelesen and ask for Valanthe. We should talk”. The note was in poor condition, but we could just make out that much. The elf delegation thought the name Pelesen was a strange joke name, as it roughly translates to “Child Town”. Perhaps something to do with the Children of Asteri that the elves in Klippica mentioned? More likely something to explore another day. The Cursed Pillars (as Somoren called them) were glowing red apart from the cracked and broken one, much the same as the last time Birel and Tagariel visited. They had left a large builder-style controllable (?) statue against a door on the lower level, but written in chalk, and in the same hand as the response to Tagariel’s note, was the message “Do not open. Really”. But we hadn’t come all this way to turn back now.
“Bartemius was summoned on the other side of the door, which allowed Tagariel to survey the tunnels beyond – all looked quiet. After a quick tutorial on how to control the statue, Xyrxina took her place at the console and we watched her face disappear and emerge on the front of the statues head. The statue slipped through the door and headed into the tunnels to explore. As Xyrxina was able to return to her own body at will, we were able to keep up with what was going on from the outside.
“After fighting through an unsettling amount of fresh web, Xyrxina was able to provide a near complete map of the damp, drippy tunnel system along with a rough idea of how many giant spiders skulked around in the various chambers. There was one tunnel leading to a chamber that was too small for the statue to fit through and she started to notice that the egg clutches had been placed on top of what appeared to be corpses. Being able to carefully control a stone statue should have an obvious advantage when creeping around a spider invested stone cave, but despite this Xyrxina managed to blow her cover and attract the attention of a particularly large giant spider deep in the caverns. It was comforting to hear how the statue was able to defeat the beast with it’s hard hitting and impressive toughness – resistance to poison was a help as well.
“This initial encounter with the disturbing residents of the tunnel system gave us some useful intelligence and confidence that the wolf eating giant spiders could be beaten, but the task of clearing the whole of the spider caves still seemed too daunting. Unfortunately for Xyrxina, the messy demise of the first giant arachnid interested three smaller spiders who skittered into the chamber to investigate. This time however, Xyrxina managed to stay still enough to convince them that the statue was part of the cavern wall. The controlled statue continued, destroying a clutch of eggs and uncovering the gruesome remains of two Queens Guard scouts from Klippica, with their vauable armour and Klippica minted gold pieces scattered around. We decided as a party to return the breastplate armour and decorated purple cloaks back to Klippica – I considered keeping some armour (and why shouldn’t I? It must be worth something) but perhaps the substantial gesture will bring richer rewards from Klippica in the future.
“We did not decide as a party to use the elf carcasses as kit bags and stuff the unfortunates with the gold – that was all Xyrxina – but I daresay I would have done the same. How else can a statue carry out all the gold if not in an elf pinata? Probably won’t mention that bit when we return to Klippica.
“I volunteered to finish exploring the caves in the second statue as the first had taken a bit of a battering. Fortuitously, the stone statue appeared to radiate a golden hue from the power of the pillars and we took this to mean that the statues are able to repair themselves. Birel mentioned the ability to control other statues much further away from the console here – I feel there’s potential in exploring that further, although only one can be controlled at a time.
“Needless to say, I decided to equip the statue with a bag for the loot I was sure to find and after a quick flame test on some of the web Xyrxina brought back, it was obvious that the elemental crossbow was an astute choice as a one handed weapon (as the statues are larger than us). I didn’t waste any time getting in and poking around. I headed straight to where a breeze was coming from, which was an underground river in a vast chamber. I not only found that the river ran from yet another (unexplored) tunnel down into a hole, but I also hit upon a fine Goblin Dagger by the edge of the river. Back towards the spider caves and in a bloody pile of gore, I uncovered some more gold pieces, this time a mix of Klippica and Fox minted. I slunk past one chamber and into another tunnel, eager to test out the fire crossbow. I aimed it at one medium giant Spider in the next chamber, putting a red dot squarely in the cluster of way too many eyes, which drew the other one over to its companion to investigate. Pictue the scene – I had the two Giant Spiders in my sights, both in a tangled mess of highly flammable web – just imagine my delight. I was so amused that I missed the creatures with my first shot despite being locked on, but when the shot caused the web to burst into flames I reloaded and hit the first spider, killing it outright. The other spider was badly burned and tried to escape but was cornered and another hit with the crossbow finished it.
“It was at this point that I decided to milk the spider. Before leaving the village we stocked up with some anti-toxin. Back then with my meagre gold stash, I was nowhere near being able to afford any which irked me considerably. Those prices are daylight robbery! So there I was, with a dead spider in front of me. Naturally I am taking that spider venom out of here with me. But I didn’t have a pouch (or any available openings in the statue body that could be used as a receptacle – that avenue was well explored). I had no option but to use the trusty Goblin Dagger to whip out the whole gland, it is a Mk 1 venom purse after all. I bodged the first attempt but successfully harvested two others and in doing so, developed quite a skill for it. I would go as far as to say I’m now The Valleys leading expert venom milker.
“Triumphant and with the sacs of precious venom in my possession, I continued through the tunnel aiming to clear out a large Giant Spider I’d seen on my way to the river. This is around the time the unwieldy statue body started to affect my performance. After a few (ahem) missed shots, the spider saw me and figured out exactly what was going on. When it leaped on top of my statue from the top of some stone steps, I managed to get up and hit it pretty hard while avoiding any significant damage from the fangs grasping for me. Another large Giant Spider dead and two more venom glands sliced away from one careful owner.
“By now I know that there are four medium spiders in a chamber towards the river and the Queen Giant Spider plus her (two? we think?) medium arachnid attendants. I can see more loot down another narrow tunnel and make a note to plunder that later. I don’t think there’s much need to go into detail about how my sneak attack on the penultimate chamber went… I killed two out of four and then things got a bit out of hand and the statue broke. The point is that the broken statue was now in the spider cave with the fire elemental cross bow and my bag of gold and spider venom.
“Thankfully the party could see my distress and came to my aid in retrieving the bag of venom glands and finishing off those two medium Giant Spiders. We didn’t have a statue available as the first one was still repairing itself but we did have a Paladin, which is almost as good - but Zardan does walk with a jingle in his step and we still needed to sneak past the Queen. He really outdid himself, I have never seen a heavily armoured tiefling tiptoe in such a dainty manner. We soon reached the narrow loot chamber which yielded yet more gold pieces (Klippica/Asteri mix – curious) and a spear. We continued to the chamber with the collapsed, broken statue partially blocking the tunnel. We sent Xyrxina down to stealthily scout out the chamber and pick up the crossbow – but things didn’t go exactly to plan. She made an almighty racket in that tunnel and was quite viciously attacked by the surviving pair, leaving her unconscious slumped next to the inoperable statue! The rest of the party stormed the tunnel and I stuck one with an arrow loosed from my short bow and Birel finished the other with a Chaos Bolt before stabilising Xyrxina. We all moved into the chamber to destroy the egg clutch and prepared for the worst – Birel’s thunder attacks must have alerted the Queen and her remaining minions to our presence, right? After a tense few moments, we were confident that we were safe. We rested up in the cleared chamber to allow Xyrxina to recover some strength before heading out of the tunnels for good night’s sleep in the Groundkeepers Hut.
“This morning we awoke knowing what had to be done. We had come so far in clearing the Giant Spiders and their nests from the tunnels but if we failed now, it would all be for nothing and the spiders would reclaim the tunnels. The Queen was still down there laying enormous clutches of spider eggs on piles rotting corpses – we’d already seen elves, halflings and animal remains given over as sacrifices to the baby spiderlings. We had plenty of time to formulate our plan while Zardan put his armour on. Xyrxina and Zardan downed some of that (overpriced) anti-toxin and Tagariel set his Mage Armour.
“The first statue was fully repaired by the time we arrived back at the Temple of Power. I volunteered to take it back in armed with the crossbow to support the party and I was surprised that everyone agreed (after what happened to that other one yesterday). I went to retrieve that statue wreck and set it repairing before we all advanced once more into the spider caves. What happened next will pass into legend. If only there had been a bard in our party…
“Birel, Tagariel and Xyrxina headed straight for the small chamber where they would be safe from the Queen Giant Spider. I crept through to the tunnel next to it, giving me a clear view of the wide passage that led from the Queen Nest Cavern. Zardan sneaked within range and launched a javelin attack right towards one of the Queens Attendants, hitting it hard but not ending its miserable existence. Both Attendants gave chase, one with the javelin still sticking from its abdomen. That unfortunate creature ran straight into one of Xyrxina’s long bow arrows, which finished it off. Zardan ran as fast as he could back towards the narrow tunnel while throwing javelins back towards the pursuing spiders. Tagariel killed the last medium Giant Spider with his crossbow and we waited for the Queen to lumber round the corner. And we waited.
“Xyrxina cast Hail of Thorns, Zardan prepared another javelin, Birel readied her Chaos Bolt and Tagariel aimed his crossbow, while I locked the fire elemental crossbow on what little of her we could see as she rounded the corner. She would have no idea what she was hurtling into! Xyrxina, Tagariel and Birel all found their mark, while Zardan found the pin cushion spider that was lying in the passage and I hit the tunnel wall, setting the pin cushion on fire. Tagariel cast Toll of the Dead while Xyrxina continued to reliably hurt the desperate, screaming Queen with her long bow. As Tagariel and Zardan both hit the Queen, she dropped to the ground, lashing out with a gargantuan leg, but Zardan avoided the hopeless attack. In that moment, the fire elemental crossbow struck the Queen and she dropped to the ground for the last time, dead.
“The others finished clearing the egg clutches as I gathered the prized venom glands from the Queen. I gathered as many trophy Giant Spider fangs as I could carry and we left the Temple of Power, exhausted. We passed through the Quiet Wood on the way back here, stopping to speak to Somoren. Now, who is buying another ale?”
Kathryn Karnage
Krithra entered the tavern, visibly weary but in high spirits. It was just starting to get busy as the dragonborn swaggered right up to the bar, throwing a hefty bag onto a nearby table. The dense thud attracted the attention of a prying local, who wasted no time slinking over. “Alright Krith? Ain’t seen ya ‘round in a few days. Whatcha got in that there bag?”. Krithra paused for a moment. “Ha, don't make me laugh! You haven’t got the minerals for the contents of my bag, let alone the stories I could tell”. A handful of folk had now gathered around, intrigued as ever by the tales of adventurers returning from beyond The Valley.
After downing a flagon of ale and signaling the barkeep for another, Krithra settled down and began speaking in a low, serious tone that drew the tavern patrons in close. “I arrived at this very tavern three days ago, later than planned and the party had already gathered with ale and supposedly “healing” triangular snacks. I only knew Birel, the half-elf sorcerer, from our last adventure. Although I was familiar with the deeds of the two high elves, Tagariel the wizard and Xyrxina the ranger, this would be the first time we have met. Also in the party was Zardan the tiefling paladin (to provide some much needed adult supervision).
“We gathered the kit we needed, including a green energy sword and a fire elemental crossbow, as well as a couple of healers kits and some anti-toxins. We all knew this was going to be a dangerous excursion, although we weren’t going far. Our plan was to head over to the Quiet Wood and the so-called Temple of Power where there was some talk of Giant Spiders from the last party to visit the area in the summer…
“The journey down to the Quiet Wood was short and uneventful. Once there, it became apparent that the path had been cleared since the last trip. Tagariel made use of Bartemius the owl apparition to scout ahead to the previously ruined huts. Bartemius proved itself to be very useful throughout – with skills such as vision, observation, sight, looking and seeing. We made our way cautiously towards the huts and met another half elf by the name of Somoren who was busy repairing the least damaged hut. She was alone, but said she’d travelled the plains from the South West with her brother (I wonder what happened to him…?). Somoren made it clear that they hadn’t come from Klippica (where the elves are “backward and superstitious”, apparently), but from further afield. She called it the Elf Lands, which must be a few weeks travel. They don’t live in towns or villages, but scattered encampments – and the Quiet Wood used to be one such Elf Lands Encampment. She seemed concerned about the spiders since the old encampment was over run around ten years ago. Tagariel and Zardan impressed her greatly with all the spider facts they knew and we left her feeling reassured that we had the situation under control.
“We spent the first night in the octagonal stone Groundskeepers hut but were disturbed just before dawn by a terrible, visceral screaming. There was no way of knowing where it had come from, so Xyrxina and I headed out to investigate. Xyrxina quickly determined that source of the noise was a wolf and we tracked its remains in the forest undergrowth. The wolf had been ripped open and had huge jagged bite marks on its torso. Bartemius managed to glimpse a large figure skittering away. By this time Zardan had managed to get his armour on and the rest of the party joined us in the bright morning of the woods. We explored the direction that the skittering creature had disappeared in and found a hole about 2ft wide (a tight squeeze for any of us – where are those smaller party members when you need them, eh…?). We managed to peer right the way down and could see a mud lid had been fashioned. The tunnel went towards the Temple of Power, so we continued with the original plan to head over there. The Tower of Observation was nearby, but our minds were focused by a beast powerful enough to kill and partially eat a wolf.
“Once we arrived at the Temple of Power, Birel noticed some boot prints in a dried up muddy puddle and Tagariel found that a note he had left saying “do not use” had the following messaged added in common; “Good idea. ___is this? Come to Pelesen and ask for Valanthe. We should talk”. The note was in poor condition, but we could just make out that much. The elf delegation thought the name Pelesen was a strange joke name, as it roughly translates to “Child Town”. Perhaps something to do with the Children of Asteri that the elves in Klippica mentioned? More likely something to explore another day. The Cursed Pillars (as Somoren called them) were glowing red apart from the one cracked and broken one, much the same as the last time Birel and Tagariel visited. They had left a large builder-style controllable (?) statue against a door on the lower level, but written in chalk, and in the same hand as the response to Tagariel’s note, was the message “Do not open. Really”. But we hadn’t come all this way to turn back now.
“Bartemius was summoned on the other side of the door, which allowed Tagariel to survey the tunnels beyond – all looked quiet. After a quick tutorial on how to control the statue, Xyrxina took her place at the console and we watched her face disappear and emerge on the front of the statues head. The statue slipped through the door and headed into the tunnels to explore. As Xyrxina was able to return to her own body at will, we were able to keep up with what was going on from the outside.
“After fighting through an unsettling amount of fresh web, Xyrxina was able to provide a near complete map of the damp, drippy tunnel system along with a rough idea of how many giant spiders skulked around in the various chambers. There was one tunnel leading to a chamber that was too small for the statue to fit through and she started to notice that the egg clutches had been placed on top of what appeared to be corpses. Being able to carefully control a stone statue should have an obvious advantage when creeping around a spider invested stone cave, but despite this Xyrxina managed to blow her cover and attract the attention of a particularly large giant spider deep in the caverns. It was comforting to hear how the statue was able to defeat the beast with it’s hard hitting and impressive toughness – resistance to poison was a help as well.
“This initial encounter with the disturbing residents of the tunnel system gave us some useful intelligence and confidence that the wolf eating giant spiders could be beaten, but the task of clearing the whole of the spider caves still seemed too daunting. Unfortunately for Xyrxina, the messy demise of the first giant arachnid interested three smaller spiders who skittered into the chamber to investigate. This time however, Xyrxina managed to stay still enough to convince them that the statue was part of the cavern wall. The controlled statue continued, destroying a clutch of eggs and uncovering the gruesome remains of two Queens Guard scouts from Klippica, with their vauable armour and Klippica minted gold pieces scattered around. We decided as a party to return the breastplate armour and decorated purple cloaks back to Klippica – I considered keeping some armour (and why shouldn’t I? It must be worth something) but perhaps the substantial gesture will bring richer rewards from Klippica in the future.
“We did not decide as a party to use the elf carcasses as kit bags and stuff the unfortunates with the gold – that was all Xyrxina – but I daresay I would have done the same. How else can a statue carry out all the gold if not in an elf pinata? Probably won’t mention that bit when we return to Klippica.
“I volunteered to finish exploring the caves in the second statue as the first had taken a bit of a battering. Fortuitously, the stone statue appeared to radiate a golden hue from the power of the pillars and we took this to mean that the statues are able to repair themselves. Birel mentioned the ability to control other statues much further away from the console here – I feel there’s potential in exploring that further, although only one can be controlled at a time.
“Needless to say, I decided to equip the statue with a bag for the loot I was sure to find and after a quick flame test on some of the web Xyrxina brought back, it was obvious that the elemental crossbow was an astute choice as a one handed weapon (as the statues are larger than us). I didn’t waste any time getting in and poking around. I headed straight to where a breeze was coming from, which was an underground river in a vast chamber. I not only found that the river ran from yet another (unexplored) tunnel down into a hole, but I also hit upon a fine Goblin Dagger by the edge of the river. Back towards the spider caves and in a bloody pile of gore, I uncovered some more gold pieces, this time a mix of Klippica and Fox minted. I slunk past one chamber and into another tunnel, eager to test out the fire crossbow. I aimed it at one medium giant Spider in the next chamber, putting a red dot squarely in the cluster of way too many eyes, which drew the other one over to its companion to investigate. Pictue the scene – I had the two Giant Spiders in my sights, both in a tangled mess of highly flammable web – just imagine my delight. I was so amused that I missed the creatures with my first shot despite being locked on, but when the shot caused the web to burst into flames I reloaded and hit the first spider, killing it outright. The other spider was badly burned and tried to escape but was cornered and another hit with the crossbow finished it.
“It was at this point that I decided to milk the spider. Before leaving the village we stocked up with some anti-toxin. Back then with my meagre gold stash, I was nowhere near being able to afford any which irked me considerably. Those prices are daylight robbery! So there I was, with a dead spider in front of me. Naturally I am taking that spider venom out of here with me. But I didn’t have a pouch (or any available openings in the statue body that could be used as a receptacle – that avenue was well explored). I had no option but to use the trusty Goblin Dagger to whip out the whole gland, it is a Mk 1 venom purse after all. I bodged the first attempt but successfully harvested two others and in doing so, developed quite a skill for it. I would go as far as to say I’m now The Valleys leading expert venom milker.
“Triumphant and with the sacs of precious venom in my possession, I continued through the tunnel aiming to clear out a large Giant Spider I’d seen on my way to the river. This is around the time the unwieldy statue body started to affect my performance. After a few (ahem) missed shots, the spider saw me and figured out exactly what was going on. When it leaped on top of my statue from the top of some stone steps, I managed to get up and hit it pretty hard while avoiding any significant damage from the fangs grasping for me. Another large Giant Spider dead and two more venom glands sliced away from one careful owner.
“By now I know that there are four medium spiders in a chamber towards the river and the Queen Giant Spider plus her (two? we think?) medium arachnid attendants. I can see more loot down another narrow tunnel and make a note to plunder that later. I don’t think there’s much need to go into detail about how my sneak attack on the penultimate chamber went… I killed two out of four and then things got a bit out of hand and the statue broke. The point is that the broken statue was now in the spider cave with the fire elemental cross bow and my bag of gold and spider venom.
“Thankfully the party could see my distress and came to my aid in retrieving the bag of venom glands and finishing off those two medium Giant Spiders. We didn’t have a statue available as the first one was still repairing itself but we did have a Paladin, which is almost as good - but Zardan does walk with a jingle in his step and we still needed to sneak past the Queen. He really outdid himself, I have never seen a heavily armoured tiefling tiptoe in such a dainty manner. We soon reached the narrow loot chamber which yielded yet more gold pieces (Klippica/Asteri mix – curious) and a spear. We continued to the chamber with the collapsed, broken statue partially blocking the tunnel. We sent Xyrxina down to stealthily scout out the chamber and pick up the crossbow – but things didn’t go exactly to plan. She made an almighty racket in that tunnel and was quite viciously attacked by the surviving pair, leaving her unconscious slumped next to the inoperable statue! The rest of the party stormed the tunnel and I stuck one with an arrow loosed from my short bow and Birel finished the other with a Chaos Bolt before stabilising Xyrxina. We all moved into the chamber to destroy the egg clutch and prepared for the worst – Birel’s thunder attacks must have alerted the Queen and her remaining minions to our presence, right? After a tense few moments, we were confident that we were safe. We rested up in the cleared chamber to allow Xyrxina to recover some strength before heading out of the tunnels for good night’s sleep in the Groundkeepers Hut.
“This morning we awoke knowing what had to be done. We had come so far in clearing the Giant Spiders and their nests from the tunnels but if we failed now, it would all be for nothing and the spiders would reclaim the tunnels. The Queen was still down there laying enormous clutches of spider eggs on piles rotting corpses – we’d already seen elves, halflings and animal remains given over as sacrifices to the baby spiderlings. We had plenty of time to formulate our plan while Zardan put his armour on. Xyrxina and Zardan downed some of that (overpriced) anti-toxin and Tagariel set his Mage Armour.
“The first statue was fully repaired by the time we arrived back at the Temple of Power. I volunteered to take it back in armed with the crossbow to support the party and I was surprised that everyone agreed (after what happened to that other one yesterday). I went to retrieve that statue wreck and set it repairing before we all advanced once more into the spider caves. What happened next will pass into legend. If only there had been a bard in our party…
“Birel, Tagariel and Xyrxina headed straight for the small chamber where they would be safe from the Queen Giant Spider. I crept through to the tunnel next to it, giving me a clear view of the wide passage that led from the Queen Nest Cavern. Zardan sneaked within range and launched a javelin attack right towards one of the Queens Attendants, hitting it hard but not ending its miserable existence. Both Attendants gave chase, one with the javelin still sticking from its abdomen. That unfortunate creature ran straight into one of Xyrxina’s long bow arrows, which finished it off. Zardan ran as fast as he could back towards the narrow tunnel while throwing javelins back towards the pursuing spiders. Tagariel killed the last medium Giant Spider with his crossbow and we waited for the Queen to lumber round the corner. And we waited.
“Xyrxina cast Hail of Thorns, Zardan prepared another javelin, Birel readied her Chaos Bolt and Tagariel aimed his crossbow, while I locked the fire elemental crossbow on what little of her we could see as she rounded the corner. She would have no idea what she was hurtling into! Xyrxina, Tagariel and Birel all found their mark, while Zardan found the pin cushion spider that was lying in the passage and I hit the tunnel wall, setting the pin cushion on fire. Tagariel cast Toll of the Dead while Xyrxina continued to reliably hurt the desperate, screaming Queen with her long bow. As Tagariel and Zardan both hit the Queen, she dropped to the ground, lashing out with a gargantuan leg, but Zardan avoided the hopeless attack. In that moment, the fire elemental crossbow struck the Queen and she dropped to the ground for the last time, dead.
“The others finished clearing the egg clutches as I gathered the prized venom glands from the Queen. I gathered as many trophy Giant Spider fangs as I could carry and we left the Temple of Power, exhausted. We passed through the Quiet Wood on the way back here, stopping to speak to Somoren. Now, who is buying another ale?”
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Valley" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thevalleyrpg...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thevalleyrpg/98513da3-7451-4c2d-81bd-711e5e5777b6%40googlegroups.com.
Rory Cullen
Rory Cullen
...despite theories to the contrary - there are no further Builder devices or rooms under the Temple of Power.
Sarah Gear
Kathryn Karnage
Oh yeah, the river tunnel?
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Valley" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thevalleyrpg...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thevalleyrpg/ca64a26a-eeac-4e2a-93f3-cf097eb0a124%40googlegroups.com.
Rico
On Monday, 24 February 2020 22:56:13 UTC, sarahg3ar wrote:
Krithra entered the tavern...
Kelly Dorset
On Tuesday, 25 February 2020 10:32:45 UTC, Rory Cullen wrote:
If anyone is travelling to or passing by Klippica, perhaps they could drop off the Queensguard armour with our condolences? The unfortunate elves themselves are buried at the edge of the forest, just south of the groundskeeper's hut, in case Klippican beliefs require their bodies to be recovered for religious reasons.
